[JURIST] The European Parliament [official website] approved a resolution [press release] to allow Lithuania to adopt the euro as their official currency in a plenary session Wednesday. The resolution, which will make Lithuania the nineteenth nation to join the Eurozone on January 1, 2015, was passed by a vote of …
[read more]

JURIST Guest Columnist Jonathan Hafetz of the Seton Hall University School of Law discusses some of the lessons offered by the Bergdahl exchange as they relate to US policy on Guantanamo ... The Obama administration has confirmed that it will continue to pursue its longstanding goal of closing the Guantanamo …
[read more]

JURIST Guest Columnist Susan Herman of the Brooklyn Law School says that the Second Circuit's Ghailani decision is both novel and disturbing because the court relied on the departure from one principle—detention for the purposes of interrogation—as justification or the departure from another principle—the right to a speedy trial ...My …
[read more]

[JURIST] Amnesty International UK (AI) [advcocacy website] on Thursday urged [press release] Lithuania to reopen its investigation into the country's involvement in the US-led rendition and secret detention programs after a victim came forward with new information. Redress [advocacy website] and the Human Rights Monitoring Institute filed a complaint [text, …
[read more]

The Iraq War was plagued with accusations of war crimes and atrocities, aimed at the different parties and countries involved in the conflict. The bulk of those claims revolved around the actual combat between US, Iraqi and guerrilla forces. However, the specter of war crimes infiltrated the war early in …
[read more]

Allegations of harsh interrogations and torture have been consistent in the decade since Guantanamo Bay began housing prisoners. Former detainees subsequently voiced abuse accusations, including Sami-al-Leithy, Murat Kurnaz, Mohammed El Gharani, Mubarak Hussain bin Abul Hasim and Binyam Mohamed. Detainees still being held at the facilities have made similar claims, …
[read more]

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Human Rights Monitoring Institute [official websites] on Tuesday urged Lithuania to reopen its investigation into secret CIA prisons [JURIST news archive] that may have operated in the country from 2001-2006. In 2010 Lithuania launched an investigation into illegal detentions but closed it a …
[read more]

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Monday ruled [opinion, PDF] that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official websites] do not have to release records pertaining to CIA detention and interrogation programs for prisoners in US custody overseas. …
[read more]

[JURIST] A Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] detainee reached a plea agreement with military prosecutors on Wednesday that included an agreement to testify against other detainees. Under the agreement, detainee Majid Khan [GlobalSecurity profile], a 31-year-old former Baltimore-area resident, will be required to testify at the trials of other detainees in …
[read more]

[JURIST] Lawyers for a Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee and alleged al Qaeda facilitator on Thursday filed a case against Lithuania in the European Court of Human Rights [official website] for torture and secret detention at a CIA-run location within the Baltic state. The claimant, Abu Zubaydah [BBC profile], …
[read more]

[JURIST] Australia played a larger role than previously thought in the abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive] in Iraq, according to Australia Defense Force (ADF) [official website] documents obtained by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre [advocacy website] through freedom of information laws. The documents [text] …
[read more]

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] announced Wednesday that high-value Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri [JURIST news archive] will be subject to capital charges and tried in a military court [press release]. According to the Pentagon, the chief prosecutor for the DOD's Office …
[read more]

[JURIST] Human rights groups are calling for Lithuania to reopen its investigation into whether the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] had a secret prison in the country. Statements from Amnesty International (AI) and Reprieve [press releases] say that Friday's decision to stop the investigation [Baltic Times report] was …
[read more]

JURIST Contributing Editor Jeffrey Addicott of St. Mary's University School of Law, formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, says President Obama's inability to close the lawful Guantanamo prison is actually good news, but so is the Afghan government's agreement to take over the new …
[read more]

[JURIST] The US government has turned down requests from two separate UN investigators to visit the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], the Washington Post reported [text] Thursday. UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak and UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin [official websites] …
[read more]